


Like Daylight

by TragicLove



Category: Hanson (Band)
Genre: F/M, Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:20:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21813724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TragicLove/pseuds/TragicLove
Summary: Nothing makes sense when Quinn VanCamp meets Zac Hanson. Not her quick feelings for him, not the way she's drawn to him, not why he never tells her he's married, and definitely not how she's supposed to navigate all of that once he becomes her new boss.
Relationships: Zac Hanson/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 54
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hit a severe bout of writers block and now I'm back with (I know, a SHOCKER) another OFC fic that pulled me out of it. I'm really enjoying writing this one and I hope y'all like it! <3

I don’t know where I thought I’d be at twenty-nine years old, but divorced, jobless and friendless in a beat up bar in a brand new town wasn’t exactly where I had pictured myself. Yet here I am, sitting in this room that smells like it hasn’t been cleaned properly since the building was built, bottle of cheap beer in front of me, condensation rolling off of it as if we’re in the Sahara, surrounded by faces I’ve never seen before. 

There is a too loud band playing on a makeshift stage, their instruments turned up too loud, their mics too low, every thing just a bit off key. Every time I look around I’m a little bit shocked at just how drawn to them the crowd seems to be, because if I’m honest, they sound terrible. But the place is packed and everyone _but_ me seems to have come here just for this four piece who are (badly) singing covers of rock songs my parents would listen to. 

I’m cursing myself for listening to my best friend back in Boston who pushed me to go out and try to find _new_ friends. I should have stayed at home in my new apartment and binge watched The Kardashians. It would be more pleasant than whatever it is I’m putting myself through now. My apartment is the one good thing about moving here. Double the size of the hovel Bri and I rented in Boston and less than half the price. 

I know I’m being ridiculous and catty. I’m more aware of it than I’d like to admit. It’s just that I _am_ miserable and it’s turning me catty.

I’m jarred from behind, my hand that was resting on the table hitting my beer and tipping it over. I groan and grab for it, righting it on the table, sighing as the liquid foams out of the neck of the bottle. I’m just finished shaking my head when a cool hand lands on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, my god it’s so packed in here.”

I turn my head to my left where a scruffy, yet attractive man is standing. He’s smiling and shaking his head, his eyes moving from me to the foamy beer still slowly leaking from the top of my bottle.

“I was trying to walk by and someone walked into me, I knocked into your stool.”

“That you did,” I say, my eyes flitting down to his hand that’s still resting on my shoulder. He removes it and motions to the empty seat on the other side of him.

“Do you mind if I sit? There’s-” he waves his hand around the room and for some reason my eyes follow. Every single round table throughout the place is full. 

“Yeah, of course,” I shrug. He sits and places his own beer bottle on the table next to mine and then he sits up straighter and shakes his head.

“I’m such an asshole,” he laughs. “Let me get you another one of those.”

I try to protest but before I can he’s out of his seat and halfway to the bar where he collides with another person. I can’t help but snort. Maybe he’s like a giant toddler and causes collisions everywhere he goes. It’s no wonder, really, he’s all legs, tall and a little gangly but somehow it suits him. He returns with a new beer for me, somehow without causing any accidents on the way, and he puts it down in front of me and then slides back into his seat, turning his full attention to me.

“I’m Taylor, by the way,” he extends his arm and holds his hand out for me to shake.

“Very formal, Taylor,” I smile and shake his hand. “Quinn.”

“I haven’t seen you here before, first time?”

“I just moved here,” I respond and then wave my hand in front of my face. “Well, two months ago. I don’t get out much.”

“Do you like it?”

“Sure,” I say and then shake my head and let out a little laugh. “No, not really.”

“Why not?” He pulls a shocked face and I almost laugh again, but I don’t. “Tulsa is great! You’ll fall madly in love with the place before you know it, and when you do you’ll say to me, you know what Taylor? You were right, I love Tulsa!”

His enthusiasm is suddenly exhausting and hilarious all at once. I wonder if he talks to every new person he meets like this and I also wonder if maybe there’s something wrong with him. I’m about to open my mouth to ask just that when another guy claps him on the shoulder and then walks around our tiny round table and plops himself into the empty chair on the other side of me.

“Sorry I’m late,” he says to Taylor. “Traffic.”

“There wasn’t any traffic, you just didn’t want to stop playing video games.”

“True,” the guy shrugs and then turns to me. “Who are you?”

“Who are _you_?” I lift an eyebrow. This is my table, isn’t it rude to just insert yourself into someones space and demand to know who they are?

“I’m Zac,” he smiles and suddenly his whole face is transformed. Without being told I know that he’s Taylor’s brother, I can just tell. “Again, who are you?”

“Quinn,” I look over at my beer and grab it for lack of something else to do. I lift it to my mouth and take a long sip.

“Quinn just moved here and she hates it,” Taylor says. “I told her that will change.”

“Taylor is a Tulsa enthusiast. Don’t ever say anything bad about this place if he’s around.” I shift my eyes back to Zac who is now grinning, one side of his mouth higher than the other, he looks over at Taylor and tilts his head. “Did you already give her your dissertation on why Tulsa is the greatest American city in existence?”

“I didn’t have time.”

The shitty band stops playing and thanks the crowd for coming out and I’ve never been so happy for something to be over.

“Thank God,” Zac mutters and I turn back to him and snort.

“Seriously.”

“They’re terrible, right?” He grins again. “I don’t understand how they always fill up a room.”

Theres no time to answer before another guy steps up to the table. There’s a big hullabaloo between the three of them, Taylor and Zac both jumping out of their seats, lots of back slapping and exuberant chatting like these three are each others favorite people in the world and they haven’t seen each other in decades. I pick my phone up and scroll through Facebook while they enjoy their little reunion. I sip my beer and roll my eyes at the sheer amount of people in my social media feed trying out some get rich quick scheme. Pictures of Bri and a bunch of our other friends back home having what appears to be a really good time pop up and I feel a little pang in my chest. I don’t want to be here, I just want to be back at home where I belong. I’m starting to sink into a pit of despair when I realize that Zac is back in his seat and leaning over to look at my phone. I hit the lock button and put it face down on the table and then look back at him.

“That’s kind of rude.”

“He’s kind of rude,” Taylor remarks and then shakes his beer bottle. “Need a refill. You guys?”

“No thank you,” I look at my half full beer.

“I’m not drinking tonight,” Zac pipes up. “Got a race tomorrow.”

“A race?” I ask.

“Zac does all those weird obstacle course things where you like, crawl through the mud and jump over fire,” Taylor explains and I lift an eyebrow at Zac again.

“You enjoy torturing yourself?”

“It’s fun,” he smiles and shakes his head.

“Right,” I nod slowly and look back at Taylor. “Do you also like torturing yourself? What’s your hobby, sword swallowing?”

The sound of instruments starts back up and I turn towards the stage where the guy who was just talking to Zac and Taylor, along with three other guys, is now on the stage. They’re tuning their instruments and the nameless friend is greeting the crowd.

“Now you’ll hear some good music,” Zac grins over at me and shifts his chair so he’s sitting next to me instead of at the side of the table. Taylor turns his chair a little too, his attention focused on the stage, a small smile on his mouth.

The band starts playing and Zac is right. They’re worlds better than the last band, the songs all their own but laced with a classic rock vibe. These guys should be famous, not playing some dive bar in the midwest. I find myself bobbing along to the music and this time when Taylor offers me another beer I accept. 

We spend the next forty five minutes sitting there together as if we spend every weekend night going out together to catch some live music and it dawns on me that I’m _comfortable_ with these two guys who’s last name I don’t even know. Maybe it’s not impossible to make new friends out here after all, maybe Bri was right and I just had to, you know, actually put pants on and leave my house. 

The band stops playing before I’m ready for them to and I glance down at my phone and see it’s nearly one in the morning. Suddenly I’m exhausted and despite the fact that for some reason I want to keep hanging out with these guys, the thought of my bed sounds more than tempting.

I’m about to say that I should go when Taylor says it for me.

“Six kids makes for an early morning,” he grins.

“Six…you have six kids?” I shake my head. The thought of one kid is enough to make my brain go all screwy, never mind half a dozen.

“Yep,” he shrugs and stands from his seat. “They just kept coming after one.”

“I think you might have had something to do with that,” Zac rolls his eyes and stands up too, looking over at me. “You need a ride or anything?”

“No,” I shake my head. “Thanks, though.”

“We’ll walk you out,” he smiles and I wonder why these guys are being so nice to me.

We make our way through the now less crowded bar and Taylor holds the door open for us. “I’m over there,” he motions towards the opposite side of the parking lot that I’m parked on.

“I’m that way,” I smile.

“Me too,” Zac says. “See you tomorrow, Tay.”

“Six o’clock,” Taylor nods then turns to me. “We come here a lot, most Saturday nights when we’re home. Grant and the guys have a standing gig here on the weekends. Maybe we’ll see you again?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “Maybe.”

Taylor smiles and then nods, waving quickly before turning and walking away, leaving Zac and I alone.

“What’d you think of the band?” Zac asks as we walk across the dimly lit lot.

“They were really good,” I smile over at him. “Way better than the first one.”

“Those guys suck,” he shrugs a shoulder. “I shouldn’t say things like that but…well,” he shrugs again.

“This is me,” I hit the button to unlock my car and stop walking when I reach the door. 

“Drive safe,” he smiles. “Thanks for hanging out.”

“Yeah,” I nod. “It was fun.”

“Have a good night, Quinn.” He smiles again and turns, walking further down the parking lot. I hear the beep of him unlocking a car and just as I pull my door open to get in I hear him again. “Hey Quinn,” I turn my head and he’s turned back towards me, slowly walking backwards towards a pickup truck, fiddling with his keys. “I really do hope to see you again.”

His smile widens and he turns around and jogs the rest of the way to his truck, pulling the door open and hopping in.


	2. Chapter 2

“I told you you could make friends,” Bri’s voice floats into my ear from a thousand miles away. “Just not if you’re cooped up in that apartment all day, every day.”

It’s been three days since the night at the bar and I’ve been thinking about hair and teeth and brown eyes almost endlessly. Specific ones, not just any hair, teeth and eyes, and it’s driving me a little crazy. The first cute boy I see in Oklahoma and my mind has seemed to fixate, deciding that we won’t think about any one or any thing else for the foreseeable future. 

“I’m not sure you’d call them friends. We didn’t even like, exchange numbers or anything.”

“Right, but they both said they want to hang out again,” Bri says. I can tell she’s busy, doing something on the other end of the call but not wanting to brush me off in my time of lonely new Tulsan need. 

“Yeah,” I sigh and lean back on the couch. “Maybe I’ll see them this weekend.”

“You should! You’re still young and you’re in a new place, you have a world of possibilities ahead of you. Quit being such a downer and get out there.”

“I know,” I sigh again. “I should really get ready for this interview,” I can feel a groan coming on, but I push it down. I’m not used to be this negative, I’m definitely not used to being this morose, and I hate it. 

“Yeah!” Bri is suddenly excited for me. This is why I love her, she feels the emotions I should be feeling when I can’t seem to. “You’re going to smash it, I know it.”

“I’m not qualified in the least, it’s seriously the only thing I’ve seen advertised where I can pay all of my bills and not dig into my trust every month.”

“Your sparkling personality will make you qualified,” Bri laughs softly. “You know, if you let it show.”

“Uh huh,” I grumble and push myself up off the couch. “What should I wear?”

“Jeans,” Bri sounds sure. “And that black top you stole from me, the one with the-”

“I know the one,” I laugh. It’s not the only thing I stole from her before I left. She’ll realize the rest soon enough. “Come visit me soon. Please.”

“As soon as I can! I want to see the new digs.”

I look around at my white walls and my Target furniture. It’s not Boston, but I did okay. “I want you to, too.”

“Go get ‘em, Quinn,” Bri says. I can tell she’s smiling. “You got this.”

We hang up and I wander around the apartment for a few minutes, aimlessly moving things around and wiping counters that don’t need to be wiped. I haven’t even cooked in here yet, opting instead for takeout for every meal. When I decide I can’t waste any more time doing things that don’t need to be done I get dressed. Jeans and Bri’s shirt, and then move on to making myself look presentable for a job I have no experience for.

Forty five minutes later and I’m bouncing up and down on my heels in an absurdly long Starbucks line. I’ve barely seen any people in this town except for the shockingly large crowd at the bar, but suddenly apparently the entirety of the population also wants coffee right when I do. Maybe this is the only place in the entire city limits that serves decent coffee, I haven’t done too much research yet, but it’s on my list of things to do.

I finally get my iced coffee and get back in my car and drive toward the downtown area. I haven’t been over here yet, but I instantly like the look and feel of it. Very we’re a little city trying to be a big one, worlds away from where I come from, but somehow attractive to me.

I find a parking spot easily and amble out of my car, iced coffee in hand. I should probably leave it in the cup holder, but I feel like I’m going to need it, so I bring it with me anyway. I check my warped reflection in the car windows, fix my hair, and head towards the door of the place I’m set to interview at. I pull, it’s locked, so I sigh and look around for a buzzer, but before I can find out the door swings open and a woman about three inches shorter than me is standing there smiling.

“You must be here for the interview.”

“Sure am,” I force a smile and nod my head.

“Come on in,” she holds the door open wider and steps aside to let me in. “We’re running a little late, as usual,” she laughs. “Just hang around right here for a sec.”

The door swings shut behind me and I’m in a virtually empty front room. I look around and don’t see much of anything descriptive or decorative, just blank walls and a curtain shutting the rest of the building off from the room I’m standing in.

I sip my iced coffee and pull my phone out, smiling at a text from Bri encouraging me to be my best self. Just as I’m slipping my phone back into my pocket I hear feet coming towards me and a bubble of nerves grows in my stomach. I haven’t interviewed for a job in years, I have no idea how to even do it anymore. I’m just creating a scenario in my head where my interviewer decides I’m a complete and total idiot when the curtain slides open and a pair of brown eyes meets mine. I can feel my head tilt to the side and my eyes grow a little wide just as the smile is growing on his face and he steps further into the room.

“No way,” he laughs. “It’s you.”

“It’s me,” I repeat dumbly. I want to say something else, but nothing else is coming to me, so instead I lift my coffee to my mouth and take a sip.

“I thought your name was Quinn,” he cocks an eyebrow at me. “Do you always give fake names to strangers in bars?”

“No,” I let out a small laugh. “Quinn’s my middle name.”

“You don’t like Hannah? Hannah is a great name.”

“It’s my grandmothers name,” that sense of dread that comes along with ignored responsibility bubbles up inside of me, but I shove it down. Now isn’t the time, there will be plenty of time for that later, once I have a way to support myself that doesn’t involve taking my trust fund and lighting it on fire.

“VanCamp,” he nods slowly. “Hannah Quinn VanCamp. Are you rich? VanCamp is a rich name.”

“Names can be rich?” It’s my turn to cock my eyebrow at him.

“They can sound rich.”

“I’m…not rich,” _stupid_. I take another sip of my coffee and shift on my feet. I can’t believe this is happening. What kind of weird movie plot did I find myself in? Being interviewed by the guy who’s mouth I’ve spent the past three days seeing in my head for no other reason than he’s attractive and one of the only people I’ve met in this one horse town.

“Alright, Hannah Quinn VanCamp,” he moves the curtain to the side and holds it aside for me. “Come on back. My brothers were supposed to be here but…they’re not. This happens a lot, we’re not very organized. It’s our downfall, but we’re hoping you’ll be able to help with that. Bex does a good job of keeping our shit straight, but she needs help, so we’re hoping to hire someone to give her that.”

He leads me through the building, my eyes scanning our surroundings as we walk briskly. There is shit _everywhere_. Instruments set up, instruments half set up or in pieces around the space. I’m making a list in my head of every space that needs to be cleaned and swearing at myself for being so over the top and then he leads me into an office - even messier than the rest of the spaces - and motions to a black leather rolling chair.

“You can sit,” he moves across the room and pulls another chair from underneath a desk that is practically toppling over with stuff and sits down himself. I lower myself into the chair, taking an inventory of the room. Everything from smaller instruments to paint and paintbrushes clutter the space with seemingly no rhyme or reason. I look over at him and shake my head.

“Who _are_ you?”

“I told you, I’m Zac,” he grins.”

“Yeah,” I nod. “I know that, but who _are_ you?”

“You don’t know?” He laughs quietly. “I like that.”

“Should I know?”

“Maybe,” he shrugs. “Maybe not.”

“Okay…” I shake my head. I’m about to get up and leave. Maybe he’s crazy, and this is his crazy person lair and really, he’s interviewing for victims.

“My brothers and I are in a band. We’re…mildly successful. We don’t have a lot of time to do the administrative work or keep this place neat and tidy or…really to keep our shit together when we’re not around or we’re busy working on stuff so,” he shrugs. “We’re looking for some help.”

“Gotcha,” I lift an eyebrow. “I don’t, you know, actually have any experience in the music bus-”

“Not necessary.” He cuts me off. “Are you organized?”

“Sure.”

“Do you know how to yell at someone when they need to stop procrastinating and get their shit together?”

“Uh...sure?”

“Can you work weird hours?”

“Define weird.”

“Sometimes a normal 9 to 5,” he grins. “Sometimes more like noon to whenever we’re finished?”

“Uh-“

“We’re a little chaotic here,” his grin is still there. 

“I can see that.”

“Can you leave the state for potentially weeks at a time?” 

“I...guess so?”

“No husband or kids to leave behind?”

I raise my eyebrows, both this time. “No.”

“Good to know.”

I hate his smirk. 

Except I love it. I should get up and leave, I can’t work here. 

“You’re hired.”

My eyes snap up to his and I wrinkle my nose up. “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” he nods. 

“Do I have to like...do a background check or-“

“Are you a felon? Murderer?”

“No.”

“Then no.”

“I think you might be a little insane,” I shake my head. “Are _you_ a murderer?”

“Maybe,” he shrugs. “So can you start tomorrow?”

“You move fast,” I’m shaking my head still and I can’t stop. There’s something about this guy that kicks me off keel and I can’t quite figure out what it is. It’s definitely not his eyes and the way they sparkle just a little bit when he talks — no, definitely not that. 

“Only when I know I’m right about something,” he grins and it crosses my mind that he’s flirting with me, but I quickly convince myself that he can’t be. He just hired me to work for him, I’m sure they have some kind of inter office dating policy or something - “and I know I’m right about this.”

He’s pulled his bottom lip just slightly between his teeth and the way he’s looking at me is making my heart race, but I’m sure I’m just inflating what is just his friendly personality. It’s just been so long since I’ve actually had a full conversation with someone else face to face that I’m seeing things that aren’t there. 

Plus, this guy is a solid nine and I’m...not. 

I’m definitely reading into things. 

“Okay, it’s settled then,” he claps his hands and stands up when I don’t say anything. “Welcome to 3CG, you’ll like it here. We’re only a little crazy and a lot horrible at keeping our shit together, I hope you’re prepared to corral three grown ass men, it should be fun!”

“You’re also pushy,” I say and stand when he does. “But okay,” I nod. “I guess I work here now.”

“I guess you do,” he smiles and steps past me to pull the door open. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.”

We walk back through the rest of the office and out into the plain front room. He pushes that door open too and holds it for me to step out. “I see your car,” he smiles and steps out with me. “How’s ten sound tomorrow morning? We’ll give you the run down and introduce you to Isaac and the rest of the team.”

“Okay,” I nod and take a few steps towards my car. 

“Oh, and-“ he smiles. “Can you leave Tulsa for about two weeks the weekend after next?” 

“What?”

“We have a small string of shows coming up. We’ll need help.”

“Help doing...”

“Tour stuff,” he shrugs and I’m wondering what the hell I’m getting myself into. My new boss doesn’t even seem to know what my new job entails, seems super promising. But, somehow I find myself nodding, agreeing to I don’t even know what. 

“Alright.”

“Alright,” he repeats, and his smile is back. “See you tomorrow, Quinn.” 

“Tomorrow,” I say, and turn for my car. I have no idea what I’m doing.


	3. Chapter 3

I show up at 3CG at ten sharp, as we discussed and no one is here. 

It’s 10:10 when I start pacing back and forth in front of the door and 10:15 when I decide to leave. 

This was obviously a mistake. I can’t work for the most uncollected group of people on the planet, it’s just not something I’m built for. And I shouldn’t have to be. I don’t even know what they’re paying me, but it can’t be enough. 

I turn to leave and I’m four steps closer to my car when I hear him. 

“Where ya going?” 

I jump and turn around and he’s walking towards the door balancing two mountain dews in his right hand. 

“No one was here,” I say lamely. 

“I’m here now,” he smiles and shoves a key in the door. “I’ll give you one of these today.” 

He pulls the door open and leaves room for me to step inside and he follows me in. 

“Ike and Tay should be here any minute. You drink a lot of that stuff, huh?” He nods his head at my coffee as he leads me through the back and towards the office we were in yesterday. 

“Yeah...it’s, uh...how I stay alive.” 

“I feel that,” he grins, holding up his soda cans before shoving one in a mini fridge tucked into the corner. 

“It’s not even 10:30 in the morning,” I say quietly as he takes a few large gulps from the can he left out. 

“It’s how I stay alive,” he says in a monotone voice and then breaks out in a huge smile. “So,” he says after a couple seconds of me staring at him blankly. “Your first task is to clean my office.”

I stare at him blankly again for a beat and then I look around the room. I can feel my face screwing up, but I can’t help it. His office is an absolute shit show. There is shit - the only word for it - strewn literally everywhere. I’m shaking my head, my eyes darting around the room, and I’m sure I look a little frantic, but I’d honestly rather walk right on out of here than attempt to clean this mans pig sty. 

“I’m kidding,” he laughs and my eyes shoot over to him. I’m giving him a dirty look and it seems like he enjoys it, so I roll my eyes for added emphasis. “I wouldn’t do that to you. I’m a mess.”

“I’d say,” I look around quickly again. “This looks like a teenage boys hovel.”

“I may be a teenage boy at heart,” he chuckles, actually chuckles, and I can feel my slight scowl turning into a small smile. I try to reign it in, I don’t want him to know that he’s charming. Though, he probably already does. “Anyway, you’re not a maid.”

“I’m not,” I confirm. 

“If you had to follow us around and clean up after us we’d have to pay you a lot more.”

“Speaking of that-“

“We’ll figure it out,” he cuts me off. “We haven’t actually discussed wages.”

“What?” I half snap. “Shouldn’t you, like, decide on that before you hire someone?” 

“Probably,” he grins. “I told you, we’re-“

“Super disorganized and terrible?” I cut in. 

“Hey, hey, no one said anything about terrible. I’ll have you know that I’m awesome.”

“Are you?” I tilt my head and lift my eyebrow. 

“I am-“

“Sorry I’m late!”

We both turn towards the door where a slightly frantic looking Taylor is ambling in holding an iced coffee and several canned drinks. 

“Oh!” He stops in his tracks when he sees me. “Quinn!”

“Hey,” I half wave my hand at him. 

“What’re you-“

“She’s the new girl,” Zac interjects. 

“You didn’t tell me she was the new girl,” Taylor looks from me to Zac and then back to me. 

“I must have forgot,” Zac says. “Taylor, Quinn is the new girl.”

I’m looking back and forth in between them and I swear the more I’m around these people the more I feel like maybe I shouldn’t be. 

Weird how I can feel like that but also feel like I _want_ to be. It’s a delicate mix, these feelings I have that range from wanting to run out of this shit filled office and never speak to these men again and wanting to become best friends with them. It’s only the contact thing. I’ve been alone here for too long, they’re drawing me in with their…socialization. 

The word pathetic flashes through my mind. It’s fine, I’ve been worse things.

“Do you love Tulsa yet?”

I shake myself out of my black hole and smile over at Taylor. “Not quite.”

“You’ll get there,” he smiles back.

“Alright, not to interrupt the Tulsa Welcoming Committee,” Zac snorts. “But, we have work to do.”

“Right,” Taylor nods. “Where’s Ike?”

“No idea,” Zac shrugs and as if on cue a third man rushes into the office that is now feeling overly crowded. He’s mumbling something into his phone and I have to move out of the way so he doesn’t walk straight into me. He hangs up and looks up at Zac.

“Where’s the new girl?”

“Behind you,” Zac motions towards me and Isaac whirls around and smiles.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” I half wave again and he holds out his hand.

“I’m Isaac.”

“Quinn.”

“Nice to meet you, Quinn,” he smiles again. “I hope these two haven’t been giving you too much trouble.”

“Not too much,” I smile. 

“What’re we having her do today?” Isaac turns back towards Zac and Taylor.

“I have no idea,” Zac shrugs and I feel it again. What am I _doing_ here?

“We need hotels booked,” Taylor looks up from his phone. “She should do that.”

“Think you can book us some hotels?” Zac steps closer to me and smiles.

“I think I could handle that.”

“Come on, I’ll show you where you’ll be working.”

I follow him out of his office and two doors down the hallway where he leads me into another office that is much cleaner than the one we were just in. 

“This is your home now,” he sweeps his arm around the room. “You can do whatever you want with it. Decorate, or don’t. We don’t have too many rules around here, as you could see by my dungeon.”

“Awesome,” I nod.

“That’s your desk,” he points at the desk at the far end of the room. “And that computer is for your use. We have a file on there stating which hotels we prefer to stay at in each city, with multiple second choice options. There is another file with the tour dates and if we require a hotel or not for that stop. Some of them comp us our rooms, that’ll be noted too.”

“Got it.”

“Once you’re done with that, just pop back in next door and we’ll figure out what we’re doing next.”

“Alrighty,” I nod again. 

“Holler if you need anything,” he smiles and walks towards the door. He makes it two steps out before he turns around, his hand on the door jamb. “I think we’re gonna like having you here.”

“Me too,” I smile. I’m shocked by how much I suddenly mean it.

The next six hours go by so quickly I’m surprised when Taylor sticks his head in my new office where I’m just closing down the laptop.

“We’re gonna close up shop,” he smiles. “Got any dinner plans?”

“Nope,” I stand up and meet him at the door.

“Wanna grab something? I’m starving.”

“Oh,” I look up at him for a second and then I smile. “Yeah, sure.”

“How do you feel about tacos? I could really go for some.”

“Tacos sound great,” I nod.

We walk through the office and to the front room where Zac is just getting off the phone, he turns and sees us and smiles. “How did your first day go?”

“Good,” I smile. I’m not even lying. I thought it would be a disaster, but I didn’t light the building on fire and they didn’t drive me too crazy. I think I can work here after all.

“I’m gonna take our new hire out for tacos. See you tomorrow?” Taylor walks towards the door and pushes it open just a little bit.

“Oh,” Zac crinkles up his eyebrows but lets them fall quickly. I wonder if you’d even notice he did it if you weren’t staring at his face. “Cool. Sounds fun. Yeah, see you guys tomorrow.”

I think about asking him if he wants to come along, but these aren’t even my plans and Taylor swings the door open wider and steps out, motioning for me to walk past him. So I just wave at Zac instead and breeze past Taylor, then fall into step with him as we walk down the street.

“I thought you were never going to answer the phone,” Bri squeals into my ear less than a second after I say hello.

“I was out,” I laugh, shutting and locking my door behind me.

“Out? Again? You little social butterfly!”

“Please,” I laugh again. “I went for tacos with Taylor. After work.”

“How’s that going anyway?”

“It was just the first day, I have no idea how it’s going. I will tell you that they are incredibly unorganized and also impossibly hot. It’s almost hard to look at them.”

“Both of them? Are you looking to date a pair of brothers? Oklahoma really has changed you, Q.”

“No,” I laugh. “I’m pretty sure Taylor is married. I mean, he has six kids. He didn’t say anything about a wife, but he must have one, right?”

“You’d think,” Bri agrees. “But who knows these days.”

“And I don’t even know anything about Zac,” I kick my shoes off and walk into my room. I collapse onto my bed and put the phone on speaker and lay it next to my head. “Just that he’s kind of obnoxious, but in this weirdly charming way. And his face makes me irrationally upset.”

“What?” Bri laughs. “Why?”

“Because it’s so…” I sigh and roll my eyes at myself. “Ridiculously perfect.”

“It can’t be that perfect,” she laughs again. “You’re dramatizing it.”

“Me? Dramatize something?” I scoff. “I’d never do that.”

“Right,” I can basically hear her eyes rolling through the phone. “I have to go, I have to get ready to go out like a normal, single, 20 something.”

“You’re only a 20 something for another couple of months,” I remind her.

“Even more reason,” she responds. “Call me tomorrow. And while I’m away, call your new boss and tell him you want to do him.”

“Oh my God,” I groan.

“Love you, bye!” She laughs into the phone and then mine gives me the beeps to tell me she’s hung up.

I do not want to do him. I don’t even know him.


	4. Chapter 4

“Ridiculous,” Zac mutters to himself as he walks into my office. He shoves his phone in his pocket and sits down hard on the rolling chair across the room before swinging it - and himself - halfway across the room, stopping when he’s in front of my desk. “I guess it’s just us today. Three of Taylor’s kids are sick so he’s staying home to help Nat out and Isaac is…doing something that doesn’t include being here.”

“Ah,” I say and grab my coffee. I take a sip and then put it back down on my desk and lean back in my chair. “So, what’s that mean?”

“That means,” he leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees and smiles. “We get to leave. If they don’t have to work, either do we. I just have to finish something up quick and then how about brunch? I haven’t eaten and now my whole day is apparently clear.”

“Brunch,” I repeat. “You don’t strike me as a brunch guy.”

“I’m a food guy,” he grins and stands up, pushing the chair back across the room. “Meet me out front in twenty.”

“Alright,” I shrug and watch as he saunters out of the room.

I waste some time straightening out some papers that don’t need to be straightened out. I check my email and shut the computer down. I spend ten minutes scrolling through my phone and then decide that I’m bored, so I get up and and walk out of my office, shutting the light off and the door behind me. I make my way down the hallway and I stop when I hear the music. 

I’ve been working here for almost a week and I’ve yet to actually hear these guys - this band - play anything. They spend most of their time arguing about what they’re going to play on this upcoming tour they have or doing seemingly separate things in their offices. For people who make money by playing music, I sure haven’t seen or heard a lot of that going on. Until now.

I take two more steps towards the corner and lean against the edge of it. Zac’s sitting at the piano, his hands lightly moving over the keys. He’s lowly singing something to himself, but I can’t hear it. Judging by the way his mouth is moving, I don’t think he’s really sure about what he’s singing either. Either way, it’s pretty captivating and even though I feel like I shouldn’t be standing here watching him without him knowing, I want to anyway, so I do. I watch him for a little while longer and then he seems content with what he’s done, his hands stop moving and the notes stop filling the air. He sits there staring down at the keys for a little while.

“That was really pretty,” I say and he jumps a little and looks up at me. He smiles a little and shrugs.

“It’s nothing. Not yet anyway.”

“It should be something. It’s really nice.”

“Thanks,” he says and stands up. “Maybe I’ll turn it into something eventually. You ready?”

“Yeah,” I nod and stand up from where I’m leaning on the wall. 

“Great,” he grins. “I hope you like bacon because I plan to order a lot of it.”

He wasn’t lying. He’s sitting across the table from me shoving an unfathomable amount of bacon down his throat. I’ve spent most of the time we’ve been here wondering how exactly he’s so fit if this is how he eats. The two don’t really go together, but he seems to make it work. His entire existence is so confusing to me, I can’t make sense of him. 

“So how do you like the job so far?” He asks in between mouthfuls of bacon. 

“It’s nice,” I shrug and pick up my mimosa glass. If he’s paying for brunch, I don’t see why I shouldn’t indulge. 

“Are you excited to hit the road with us?”

“I mean, sure. I have never been to some of the places on the list. I just don’t know what to expect.”

“Long days and a moderate amount of crazy people,” he grins. 

“Crazier than you?”

“Probably not,” he shrugs and leans back in his chair. “You seem to like my craziness, even though you spend a lot of time scowling at me.”

“I do not,” I put my glass down and cross my arms over my chest. 

“Which thing?”

“Scowl at you.”

“So you _do_ like my craziness,” he smiles. “I knew it.”

There it is again. He’s flirting with me. I decide to change my tactic and I tilt my head to the side. 

“Maybe I do.”

He nods, his smile still spread all the way to his eyes. “I know.” 

The rest of my day is so boring that I’m not even really sure what I’ve done with it. I tried to call Bri a few times but she must be busy because she hasn’t answered a single call or text. It’s not really like her, but I don’t want to be neurotic so I force myself to not let it bother me. 

I look at the clock and it’s just after eight and I don’t know how to entertain myself anymore so I grab my phone off the coffee table and walk to my bedroom and climb into bed. Something that’s been nagging at my mind for a few days comes back to the surface and before I can stop myself I turn my phone screen on and I open google. 

I type in his name before I can make myself stop and I hit the search button, thousands of results filling up the screen. I thumb through a couple of them as it dawns on me who exactly these guys are. I feel stupid that I didn’t realize it sooner. Of course they’re _that_ Hanson. Truthfully, I’d forgotten that _that_ Hanson existed, and I never would have expected the three blonde boys on my phone screen to grow into what these guys look like now. I wasn’t all that into music when I was as young as I was when they were hugely popular for them to leave a lasting impression on me, but I definitely have a vague recollection of them existing and of course, their hit song is one I feel like everyone just _knows_. People make jokes about it all the time.

I click back onto the main results page and flick through a few more pages. I watch a couple of interviews they’ve done and I find myself laughing at him. It’s good to see that he’s not just funny behind closed doors, but it’s really who he is.

One video ends and leads into another and he’s sitting next to a pretty brunette. The interview starts and it hits me all at once.

I’ve spent the past two weeks nearly obsessing over how cute I find this guy and how magnetic his personality feels to me. I’d spent a lot of time questioning if he was flirting with me, almost sure at moments that he was. I feel stupid and naive and some kind of embarrassed for not even thinking it was a possibility, because it’s clearly a reality.

Zac Hanson is married. Because of course he is.


	5. Chapter 5

“But he’s never mentioned a wife?” Bri asks through the phone. I can hear her shuffling through something and I imagine she’s redoing our - her - apartment. 

“Not once. Not even in passing,” I’m sitting on the couch with my feet propped up on the coffee table. It’s been almost 48 hours since I went down my little google hole and I haven’t seen Zac - or the other two Hanson’s - since. Taylor’s kids got progressively sicker and they decided to take a few days off before hitting the road. 

“That’s so weird,” she says. “And he was totally flirting with you. I know you keep saying you were reading it wrong, but he totally was.”

“I guess not, now that we know he’s married and all.”

“Like that means anything,” she scoffs. “Married guys flirt with their hot secretaries all the time. There’s like a whole genre of romance novel about it.”

“I’m not his secretary.”

“Whatever,” she laughs. “I’m just saying, he’s totally been flirting with you, and you think he’s super hot and charming and all of that. So, who gives a shit? He obviously doesn’t care that he has a wife, why should you?”

“Um,” I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “Are you out of your mind?”

“Just being realistic. The way you’re in heat over him and the way he’s all over you, it’s bound to happen eventually. Wife or no wife. What did you say her name was?”

“Kate,” I say. “And she’s model thin and tall and ridiculously pretty.”

“Wait a minute,” Bri says and I hear her pull the phone away from her face. I can tell she’s put me on speaker phone and she’s typing something. “You’re ten times hotter than her.”

“Did you really just google her?”

“Of course I did,” she laughs. “And I stand by what I said.”

“Whatever,” I can’t help but laugh. “It doesn’t matter because I am not a home wrecking secretary and I wont be. I’m putting Zac Hanson’s perfect face out of my mind. Starting now.”

I tried. I really did. 

I got dressed up, I did my makeup nice. I even curled my hair. The mistake I made was when I decided to go back to the very same bar that I’d met him in. Not because the bar isn’t nice - it’s not, but it wasn’t then either - but because twenty minutes into me being there, suddenly he was also there, and now he’s sitting at my table with me, bobbing his head along to the only slightly less shitty than the first band we saw here band thats on stage. 

He stops bobbing and gets up, moves closer to my chair and places his palm on the table. He leans down over me and smiles. “I’m gonna get a drink, you want one?”

“Sure,” I say when what I really want to say is could you please back your married ass up because you’re giving me a complication. He nods and walks to the bar and I force myself to look away and back towards the stage. Seconds go by and I’m suddenly not alone anymore. Zac and Taylor’s friend, the one from the other band, is now standing just slightly less close than Zac had been seconds ago.

“Hey,” he’s smiling. “I’m Grant.”

“Hey Grant, Quinn.”

“You’re friends with the guys,” he says.

“Yeah. The guys,” I grin a little. 

“You’re working for them now, right?”

“Yeah,” I nod.

“They’re cool guys. They’ll treat you well.” He sits down in Zac’s empty chair and leans his elbows on the table. “Tay says you’re really cool.”

“Does he? I tilt my head. “That’s good to know.”

“I go on in like ten minutes, but I was wondering if you wanted to maybe get a drink after? I mean, we don’t even have to go anywhere, we could just stay here.”

“A drink?” I repeat. Is this guy asking me out? 

“Yeah,” he nods. “You can say no, if you want to.” He smiles and shrugs a shoulder and I’m about to do just that when Zac is back at the table. He drops my beer in front of me and takes a swig of his own.

“That sounds like fun,” I say to Grant and wrap my hand around my beer. “Sure.”

“Great,” he smiles again and stands up. He claps Zac on the shoulder and then looks back down at me. “See you in a little bit then.”

Zac moves around the table and lowers himself back into his chair and looks across at me. “What was that about?”

“We’re going to get a drink. After he plays.”

“Oh,” he takes another swig of his beer and then sets it on the table. “That’s…nice.”

“Yeah,” I shrug. “I could use some friends around here.”

“Friends,” he nods. “Yeah.”

He turns his head toward the stage and lifts his beer to his mouth, but I can see in my peripheral vision that he’s eyeing me. My brain is telling me to ask him why his wife never comes out with him but my mouth stays shut and within a minute Grant and the rest of his band take the stage. 

I can feel Zac looking at me periodically and I want to ask him what exactly it is he’s looking at, but again I just keep it to myself. I don’t understand what’s going on between us and I’m not sure that I want to. He’s my boss. Anything else would be complicated and messy, so it’s good that he’s married. Except that I now have a raging crush on him and I need to find a way to tamper that down. 

I look back up at the stage and realize I found one without even trying. Grant should be a good distraction. 

The band finishes playing and in minutes Grant is back at our table. Him and Zac exchange small talk and I can’t stop noticing how Zac’s eyes flicker over to me every so often. After about ten minutes Grant finally turns to me and smiles. 

“Ready for that drink?”

“Yeah,” I smile and nod up at him and he extends his arm in a wave for me to get off my stool. 

We walk over to the bar and slip onto two bar stools, the bartender takes our order and we wait for our drinks. I look over towards the table I had been sitting at just in time to see Zac slip off his chair and walk towards the door. 

He looks back at me right before he pushes the door open and I lift my hand in a wave and give him a little smile. He just looks at me for a second before half smiling and nodding and then he’s gone.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 5 was mostly filler so I decided to post two chapters at once this time. I hope you guys enjoy!! <3

It’s been a handful of days since the night in the bar and I’ve seen Grant almost every single one of them. I don’t know if what we’ve been doing is going on dates or just casually hanging out, all I know is that he’s been a decent distraction from the fact that I have absolutely no life here...along with other things. 

I’m packing to leave for this tour and I have no idea why I’m even going. They haven’t told me what my function is or what to really expect, all I know is that I’m getting a two week vacation from Tulsa and I’m getting paid to take it. 

Taylor has sent me a few texts today, we’ve arranged for him to pick me up at four in the morning and give me a ride to the office where we’ll all pile into a van and head to the airport. We’re flying to the first city and then we’ll take a tour bus the rest of the way before flying back home. It seems like transportation overload, but at least I don’t have to drive. 

It’s not even eight at night and I’m laying in bed with all the lights off trying to get to sleep. Four in the morning is going to come fast and the last thing we need is a cranky Quinn on the loose. It’s not coming, though, and I’m starting to get rest less just when my phone lights up with a text. I pick it up, surprised to see that it’s from Zac. We don’t text. We haven’t even really spoken much since that night in the bar. I slide the screen open and screw up my face at the words. 

_Do you own ice skates?_

I shoot back a quick ‘uh no’ and within seconds he’s asking my shoe size. I stare at the phone a little too long because it goes off again, another text coming through. 

_Hurry up, I’m at the store now!_

What in heavens is going on? I ask why he’s buying ice skates and almost instantly a text comes in. 

_it’s December and we’ll be in New York City. You have to ice skate in December in New York City._

_Uh no, maybe you have to ice skate in December in New York City but I certainly don’t._

I hit send and all that comes back through is the word shoe size in all caps. I reluctantly tell him because I’m sure if I don’t he won’t stop and then I toss my phone down on the bed next to me. 

The next thing I know my alarm is going off and it’s still dark outside and I’m too tired to function. 

I shut the alarm off and roll out of bed, I also consider calling Taylor and telling him that I’m not going, but I don’t. I need this job despite the amount of times I consider quitting it in a day. 

I wouldn’t even have the chance to do that if I wanted to because within twenty minutes someone is knocking on my door and I’m sure I know who it is. I pull it open and sure enough, Taylor is standing there, clad in jeans, a leather jacket and a beanie with a coffee in each hand. 

“I really hope both of those aren’t for you,” I say and swing the door open so he can come in. He follows me in and shuts the door behind him. 

“Nope, ones for you,” he stops at the kitchen table and puts one down and slides it toward me. I grab it before it falls off the edge and immediately take a sip out of it. 

“Oh this is good,” I smile. “Thanks.”

“It’s the only thing that makes four in the morning bearable,” he grins and adjusts his beanie. “You ready? I left the car running.”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I sigh and grab one of my bags off the kitchen table. He grabs the other without me even asking and then we’re out the door. 

We climb in his car and the heat blasts me in the face. It feels nice and I sit back and close my eyes. I hear him laugh softly and I turn my head just a little and crack open my left eye. 

“Something funny?”

“You’ll get used to this. The exhaustion just feels like an old friend after a while,” he smiles and puts the car in reverse and pulls out. 

The drive to the office is nice and calm, we don’t say much, but it’s comfortable. I feel like Taylor is turning into the first real friend I have in Tulsa, even if his enthusiasm for the place and his inability to allow me not to be in love with it is slightly annoying. I don’t feel the weird vibes with Taylor that I so often feel with Zac and I’m not confused by his presence the way I am by Zac’s. Being with him is just nice. Easy. 

When we pull up to the office I can see Zac and Isaac loading bags into the back of the van. Bex is standing off to the side, apparently supervising. Taylor swings his car into a parking spot, shuts it off and hops out, taking the keys with him. I slowly follow and by the time I get around to the back he already has both of my bags. 

“I can take them,” I hold a hand out but he waves me off. 

“I got it, just grab my coffee.”

I go back into the car and grab his coffee and meet him at the back of the van. Isaac waves and Zac smiles over at me and once Taylor shoves my bags in with the rest of them, Zac shuts the doors. 

“I think we’re ready,” he says. “You ready for this?” He’s looking at me now. 

“Guess so,” I smile. 

“We better get moving,” he says and turns to Isaac. “Nikki ready?”

“I’ll go grab her.”

He quickly walks into the office and we move around the side of the van. Zac pulls the door open and Taylor hops in. Zac waves me in and I slide into the seat next to Taylor and then Zac is next to me and suddenly I’m sandwiched by the two of them. 

I turn to Taylor and he smiles and shrugs. “Who’s Nikki?” I ask quietly. 

“Ike’s wife,” he sips his coffee. “She’s sweet. You’ll like her.”

On cue the van door slides open again and Isaac is helping an absolute stunner of a woman into the van. She smiles and waves at me, “I’m Nikki,” she says over her shoulder as she maneuvers herself into the back row of the van, Isaac placing himself in the seat next to her. “Proper introductions later,” she laughs and Zac reaches over and slides the van door shut and we’re on our way. 

Bex’s driving scares me. No, it horrifies me. 

She weaves in and out of traffic as if she’s a small forward trying to make her way to the basket to get the winning shot of the game. 

Except she’s mildly less coordinated than a small forward would be and her movements are slightly jerky and erratic. I’m at the point where I think I could probably throw up when we finally pull into a rest stop. We all pile out of the van and make our way into the store, each of us scattering in our separate directions, looking for pick me ups. 

I find myself staring into the Coca Cola cooler when Nikki stops next to me to apparently do the same. 

“So, you’re Quinn, right?” She smiles over at me. 

“That’s me,” I smile. 

“The guys really like you,” she’s still smiling and I wonder if that’s just her face. She lowers her voice in a joking manner and leans in. “Don’t say anything, but I’m pretty sure Zac thinks you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread.”

“What?” I look back over at her. 

“He really likes you,” she says and reaches out to pull the cooler door open. “Thinks you’re funny.”

“I’m not,” I say and reach in and grab a Diet Coke. 

“What’re we talking about?” We both turn at the sound of Zac’s voice, and there he is, two Mountain Dews and a bag of chips in his hand. 

“I’m not funny,” I say and put my Diet Coke back in the fridge. I turn on my heel and make my way towards the exit of the shop, but I don’t make it out in time not to hear it when he asks Nikki what that was about. 

The next couple of hours are tense. Or maybe that’s just me. No one is saying anything. Isaac and Nikki are cuddled up like couple of the decade in the back, Taylor has his ear buds in and is nodding his head to whatever he’s listening to and Zac is playing on his Switch, but every so often I can feel him glance over at me and it takes everything in me not to snap at him and ask him just what it is he’s looking at. 

I don’t even know what my problem is. He’s barely spoken to me in days except for some weird questions about ice skates and he’s _married_ and has definitely been flirting with me since we met. I don’t know who he thinks I am, but potential side piece isn’t it. Friend with flirty benefits doesn’t fit either. Not that I don’t miss it. Because I do. 

I’m falling into the sixth stage of regret about putting my soda back when he nudges me with his elbow and holds his extra Mountain Dew our to me. I shake my head and he holds it out further and smiles. I roll my eyes and take it and make a big show of taking a sip from it. He smiles and brings his hand up to the side of his face and makes a pulling motion and it takes me a second to realize what he’s saying so he reaches over and pulls my ear bud out of my ear. 

“Why are you grumpy?” He asks quietly. 

“I’m not,” I say, picking up the now dangling headphone and going to shove it back in my ear. He puts his hand on mine to stop me and I look up at him, my eyes narrowing. 

“Did I do something?” 

“No, Zac,” I shake my head. “You didn’t do anything.”

I pull my hand away from his and push my ear bud back into my ear and turn away from him, resting my head on the back of the seat. 

I open my eyes and Taylor is leaning into me, a small smile on his face. He stops shaking my arm and takes his hand away. 

“We’re here, sleepyhead.”

I look out the window to see where here is and it’s the parking lot of a hotel. The rest of the van is empty, it’s just me and him. 

“Where is everyone?”

“Checking in,” he says. “I said I’d wake you.”

“What a prince,” I grin and he shrugs a shoulder. 

“That’s me.”

I slide to the edge of the bench seat and lean over to push the door open and then I get out and stretch. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, and now I somehow feel worse and more tired than I did at four in the morning. I don’t even know what time it is and honestly I have no idea where we are. The touring schedule has slipped my mind. 

Taylor and I walk into the lobby of the hotel and the rest of them are standing in a huddle. Bex is handing out room keys and she holds mine out to me just as we step up to them. 

We all fall into step and get on an elevator and then off it again once it reaches our floor. One by one we split off as we each reach our doors, Zac and I eventually the only two left. I stop at the door after Taylor’s and he stops too. 

“I guess we’re neighbors,” he grins. 

“Guess so,” I say. 

“See you in a little bit?” He starts to move to the next door and I nod. 

I look up in time to see him frowning at me before he shoves his keycard into the lock and then he’s gone.


	7. Chapter 7

I open my eyes and the first thing I’m greeted with is Zac’s mega-watt smile. I wince, my eyebrows screwing up and shake my head. He’s sitting next to me, perched on the edge of the bed. “What’re you doing?”

“I grabbed your extra key from Bex, you’re about to sleep through dinner.”

“Oh,” I roll to my other side and push myself into a sitting position. “What time is it?”

“Almost seven.”

“What’re we eating?”

“Pizza.”

“Great,” I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stand up. I walk to my suitcase and heft it up onto the bed and then pull the zipper open. I ruffle through and find a pair of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt and then I look up at him. He’s just staring at me, watching my movements, and I can feel my pulse quicken just a little bit. We stare at each other for a handful of seconds and then I look down at the clothes in my hand and then over at the door.

“Oh,” he laughs and stands from his place on the bed. “Right,” he’s walking to the door but he’s still looking at me and smiling. “I’ll let you get dressed. I’ll just,” he swings the door open and he’s half out. “I’ll wait out of here and walk down with you.”

I open my mouth to object, but the door is already closing harshly behind him. I let out a breath - of disappointment, frustrations, what? I have no idea.

I change and walk into the bathroom. I look decent enough, but I pull my hair up onto the top of my head in a messy bun and secure it with a hair elastic before grabbing my purse and walking to the door. I put my hand on the door handle and take a second before pulling it open. I don’t know what is happening between us, but there is palpable tension and it’s making me so uneasy. I don’t know why I can’t just shake this crush I have on him, married men are at the top of my Do Not Pass list. He’s just so damned charming. 

I’m cursing him and pulling open the door and there he is, leaning against the wall across from me typing something on his phone. He looks up when he hears me and there’s that smile and I can’t help but smile back, even though as he’s shoving his phone in his pocket all I can ask - in my head, of course - is if he’s texting his wife.

We walk quietly through the hallway and toward the elevators and I’m just analyzing _why_ I have such a huge crush on him and _why_ the fact that he’s married is causing me to be such an asshole. I barely even know this guy, and aside from what I interpreted as flirting, I have no reason to really believe he had any intentions of anything beyond friendship with me. I’m behaving as if we were already starting a fling when I discovered that he had a wife at home, when I damn well know we weren’t.

Fixating. I’m fixating again. It’s what I do, and I know that. Not having anyone else I know worth a damn where I’m living is just making it worse. That must be what it is. That’s what I’m telling myself, at least.

“So,” he breaks the silence as we step into the elevator. “Are you excited?”

“About what?” I look over and up at him. He screws his eyebrows up and then laughs.

“Being on tour. I assume you’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Oh, that,” I wave my hand between us. “Psh, no. I’ve gone on tour with all of the hottest rock bands. This is old hat for me.”

He laughs again. “Right, of course. I read that on your resume. How could I forget?”

“Don’t let it happen again,” I can’t help but grin.

The elevator reaches its destination and the doors slide open and I see everyone else huddled up across the lobby. We make our way over to them and Taylor looks down at me and smiles.

“Nice nap?”

“How’d you know I was napping?” 

“Lucky guess,” he laughs softly. “Don’t tell anyone, but I was napping too.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” I nod. 

We chat about our plans for the rest of the night which apparently include the whole lot of us going out to dinner and then Taylor and Isaac want to go check out a bar they heard about that’s down the street from the hotel that hosts open mic nights. Everyone else is going to come back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. 

We’re halfway through pizza when Taylor, who is seated on one side of me with Zac on the other, turns to me and asks if I want to go to the bar with them. It takes me no time to decide that I would, indeed, rather do that than sit alone in my hotel room. 

“I think I’ll come too,” Zac says and Taylor lifts an eyebrow at him.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Zac shrugs. “Why not?”

“Becauseeeee,” Taylor draws out the word. “You never want to come out with us when we’re on the road?”

“Well, I want to tonight,” he shrugs again and then goes back to his pizza. 

This bar is better than the last one we were in together. It’s not as sticky and the air is less cloudy and most of the people who are going up to participate in the open mic are actually _good_. 

We’re sitting at a tiny square table in the back of the bar, Isaac on one side, Taylor on the other and, somehow, both Zac and I squeezed in on the third. Zac had started on the side next to mine, but once the open mic started, he scootched over to my side to be able to see the stage. 

We’ve had a good night so far, the three of us ribbing Isaac that he should get up there and do a Chuck Berry song. So far he’s refused, but I think if we keep plying him with whiskey we might have a shot. 

My own head is just a little bit spinny, the way a fresh cocktail seems to appear every time the one I’m working on is close to empty to blame for it, but I’m not complaining. I’m in a new place - Virginia, I had ended up figuring out somewhere along the way - with new friends starting my new job. Everything is coming up roses right now as far as I’m concerned. That could just be the cocktails, too. Who can say?

My phone lights up on the table in front of me and I reach for it, a text from Grant waiting. I smile and swipe it open, typing a reply. Zac leans over just a little bit, his arm coming to rest on the back of my chair.

“Who ya talking to?”

“Grant,” I finish typing and shut the phone screen off. I put the phone back on the table and look back at him.

“Oh,” he says. I can’t read his face. I wonder if I’m misreading his tone every time Grant comes up or if it really does set his mouth into a thin line and his normal cheerful way of talking to me into a more monotone flatline.

“Yeah,” I smile. “Are you ready for the show tomorrow?”

“Born ready,” he looks at me for another couple of seconds and then looks back at the stage. His arm stays on my chair for a few beats longer and then he pulls that away too. 

I blink my eyes open a few times and instantly I’m greeted with the worst headache I’ve had in years. Cocktails, I think to myself, too many cocktails. 

I reach over to the side and move my hand around on the nightstand until it connects with my phone and I pick it up, lifting it over my face. I wince at the brightness and then my brain connects that it’s almost noon. I’m supposed to meet the guys in the lobby at one to head to the venue and I haven’t even showered, which is a must. I feel like I have that too-much-time-in-a-bar sheen on me.

Just short of an hour later I’m refreshed and ready to go, my headache still ever present, when there are a few short knocks at my door. I walk over and pull it open and smile when I see Taylor, beanie pulled low on his head, hair pulled back in a low ponytail, sipping on a coffee. He holds another one out to me and leans against the door jamb. 

“Figured I’d bring this to you,” he smiles when he’s done drinking.

“My savior,” I smile and take a sip of my own coffee.

“You ready?”

“Yep,” I hold the door open and move back into the room. I pull my shoes on and grab my bag.

“Everyone else already left, I figured I’d come get you,” he says as we walk to the elevators. “I thought we could use some time alone to talk about this monster crush you and my brother have on each other.”

My head snaps over to look at him and I’m opening and closing my mouth. I’m sure I look like a complete idiot, but I can’t believe the words that just came out of his mouth. 

“What?” I finally say and for a second I’m not sure I actually said it.

“It’s alright,” he grins as the doors to the elevator open. “Everyone can see it.” He steps into the cubicle but my feet are apparently glued to the floor. “Get on,” he laughs, putting his hand on the elevator door so it doesn’t close. “It’s not like you’re the first girl in the world to have a crush on Zac.”

I step on and walk to the back wall and lean against it, letting my head drop against the wall. This wasn’t how I expected to start my day.

“But,” he says and I shift my eyes over to him without picking my head up. “You might be one of the only ones he’s ever crushed on back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize to everyone who is reading this for taking so long in between updates! I'm putting a lot of my focus into writing original fiction right now, but I'm not abandoning this fic, I promise! I'll have more for you soon, can't wait to hear what you think! <3


	8. Chapter 8

“I don’t…” I shake my head at Taylor as the elevator doors close. He’s grinning over at me and it’s infuriating. These guys and their faces. “I don’t have a crush on your brother.”

“No?” He leans against the wall and crosses his arms over his chest. “Are you sure? Cause I’m pretty sure you do.”

“He doesn’t have a crush on me,” I continue, ignoring his question.

“Oh, he definitely does,” he laughs. “Big one. A little goo goo even.”

“Goo goo?” I repeat, narrowing my eyes and shaking my head. “What kind of grown-” the elevator doors open and he turns and steps out and there’s Zac, standing with his back to us in the middle of the lobby, looking down at his phone. “I thought you said they left,” I say as we make our way across the room.

“I thought they did.”

Zac turns as we get closer and he smiles at me and shoves his phone in his pocket. He always seems to be on that thing lately. I can’t help but wonder who he’s talking to. _His wife_ , my brain tells me. _It’s obviously his wife._

“Hey,” he says.

“Hey,” Taylor repeats. “Thought you guys left.

“Yeah, they all did. Ike said you were going to get Quinn so I figured I’d wait for you guys.”

“Cool,” Taylor looks over at me and gives me a look that says _I told you so_ , so I give him one back. One that I hope conveys the _fuck you_ going through my mind. 

“How’d you sleep, Quinn?” I look at Zac and he’s smiling at me, waiting for me to answer.

“Alright, I guess. You?”

“Same,” he shrugs. He pushes the heavy door of the hotel open and lets Taylor and I step out before he joins us on the sidewalk. “I called an uber,” he motions to the black sedan parked against the curb. “Think that’s probably it.”

“You guys uber to shows?

”Sometimes, why not?” He looks at me weird and I shrug. I don’t really have a reason except that it isn’t something that I expected. 

Zac pulls the door to the car open and Taylor slides in. Zac motions for me to follow, so I do, and then he’s in next to me. I’m wondering if being the filling in a Hanson Sandwich is a new norm for me and I’m wondering why I don’t really mind. I don’t know what it is about Taylor but his presence in my life is something comforting for me. Something I didn’t really know I was missing before it was here. He’s the closest thing to a friend I have in Tulsa. I shake my head. He _is_ my friend, even if he’s also my boss, and I realize all at once that I’m grateful for him.

I look over at him and I smile and he gives me a weird look back. “What?” He laughs quietly and I shake my head, grinning.

“Nothing.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a little weird?” He laughs some more and I roll my eyes, still smiling.

“Never.”

“It’s true,” Zac’s voice startles me and I turn my head to look at him. He’s grinning and there is something in his eyes that says something like _things here are so weird and I don’t know why, can they please not be?_ and I feel my guard against him drooping just slightly in the middle. 

“You guys aren’t exactly the picture of normalcy,” I quip and they both laugh as if I’ve just said the funniest thing they’ve ever heard. 

I don’t know what this is. I don’t know what anything is anymore, but I’m getting used to this. Used to them. It only makes me wonder how long until the rug is pulled out from under us.

It’s so _loud_. 

I’ve seen plenty of concerts. I’ve never seen one from the side of the stage before, but that’s where I’m standing right now, and it’s just _so_ loud. 

I didn’t do much today and I’m still not exactly sure _what_ my purpose on this tour is. I checked names off of a meet and greet list and set up the merch table and outside of that, I seem to be just existing here, another cog in the Hanson machine. 

Nikki is standing next to me, her body bobbing with the music. Her lips move along with the words of the songs, songs I don’t know but can find myself wanting to learn. I can see how proud of her husband she is, she’s barely taken her eyes off of him since the concert started. I realize that I’ve never really felt that way about someone before. I’ve been close, but never to the extent of what I’m seeing radiate off of her body.

And then I turn and look back out at the stage and I see them over there in all of their glory. My eyes flit from Isaac to Taylor and then they fall on Zac and I physically feel the air rush out of my chest. 

He’s playing so effortlessly, his arms moving as if by muscle memory. He’s singing into the mic and flipping his hair out of his face and he looks like he is sat exactly where he belongs, like he was made for this. 

And then he glances over to where Nikki and I are standing and his eyes meet mine and he smiles, a giant, wide smile that reaches his eyes and the corners crinkle up and I can’t help it, I smile back. _Oh._ There it is. Oh, _shit_. 

Every barrier I’d been putting up in between him and myself and the feelings I have been having for him is coming crashing down around me and it’s louder than the music coming out of their instruments. My ears are pounding and I’m at war with myself because it doesn’t make any sense. I don’t even _know_ him, but I’m sure about this. I’m sure that there is something there between us, something growing with every conversation, every lingering moment of eye contact, and suddenly I’m _scared shitless_. 

I have to get off of this tour and go back to Tulsa. I have to find another job, get away from this man who for some reason beyond myself I am hurtling into infatuation with, and I know he’s feeling it too. He’s _married_ and I am not a home wrecker. I can’t and won’t be that person and all within the last thirty seconds I realized that if I keep spending time with him, if I keep putting myself in his presence, I will turn into that person. Taylor was right, I have a _monster_ crush on his brother, and it’s turning into something else. If my feelings can be this strong for him after such a short amount of time, and almost for no reason at all, I don’t see them easing off if I continue to be around him and work with him. I know what I have to do, I just wish it didn’t feel like there was a fist inside of me, squeezing my heart at the thought of it.

“They’re amazing, right?”

I turn my head and Nikki is leaning over a little so I can hear her. She smiles and looks back out at the stage and then back at me. She must be mistaking whatever look is painted across my face as one of awe for the band playing just a handful of feet away from us. 

“Oh,” I say and then I force a smile onto my own face. “Yeah,” I nod. “They’re amazing.” I look back out at the stage, my eyes connecting with Zac’s right as he looks over at me. Another huge smile spreads onto his face before he looks away and I look over at Nikki to see if she caught it too, but she’s already looking back at her husband, her head bobbing along to the music.

The show ends and we’re whisked from the stage to the little green room set up with drinks and food. Everyone is in high spirits and I wonder if it’s always like this for them after a show or if this is first-night-of-tour bliss. The three of them, plus their two backup musicians are talking loudly and animatedly back and forth. I hear them chiding Taylor jokingly for a couple of mess up’s he had apparently made.

I lower myself down onto the couch against the far wall and I’m just starting a long winded scolding to myself in my head about how my inner monologue is _so_ dramatic and she just needs to chill the hell out, when the cushion dips down next to me and I turn to see Zac, huge smile plastered on his face, towel slung around his neck. He holds out an uncapped bottle of water to me and I take it, taking a long sip.

“What’d you think?” He asks. His hair is dripping wet and I should be disgusted but all I can think about is how gorgeous he is. It’s almost sick, how beautiful I find him, and I wonder if maybe I’m just inflating all of this in my head. Maybe he’s not this attractive and he’s not that funny and this thing between us isn’t actually anything and really I’m just in the middle of a really long, seemingly never ending dry spell, so the first mildly attractive boy who gave me any attention is making me feel like I’m falling in love with him for no good reason. 

_Love_ , How stupid and impossible. I groan and he screws up his face, somehow while still smiling.

“Was is that bad?” He laughs and I immediately start shaking my head. _Get it together, Quinn._

“No, no,” I say and I take another sip of water. “I was just…thinking about something.”

“You okay?” He asks and takes a sip of his own water. “You don’t look good,” he shakes his head and holds up a hand. “That’s not what I meant. You look fine. Great, really. You always look great.” Stupid butterflies. “You just…you look upset or something.”

“Actually,” I’m going to tell him. I’m going to say that I have to go home, that taking this job was a mistake. I’m just formulating the way to word it when Taylor appears in front of us. He’s bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, he looks so damn happy that even if I tried I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from smiling up at him.

“We’re going to go out for drinks,” he says. “Gary,” he motions behind him, but I have no idea who Gary is. “Knows a great place near by. You guys in?”

“Nah,” Zac says and stretches his arms above his head before standing up. “I’m wiped. You guys have fun, though.” He looks down at me and smiles and I stand up too.

“Quinn?” I look back at Taylor and he just looks so happy and so ready to celebrate and I can’t help it, suddenly I’m smiling too and then I’m nodding.

“Yeah,” I say. “Yeah, alright.”

I’ll tell them tomorrow. First thing in the morning, and then I’m going to get the hell away from Zac Hanson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured I'd throw up another one since I took so long last time. Hope you enjoy!


	9. Chapter 9

I didn’t tell them the next morning.

Or the one after that. Or even the one after that.

And now we’re rolling into New York City and it’s after three in the morning and I’m so exhausted that I could actually cry. I don’t know how they do this all the time. Life on the road is not glamorous and it’s definitely not a prime place to get any sleep. I haven’t showered in two days and I haven’t seen a real bed in just as long. 

We climb off the bus, each of us moving sluggishly. I grab my bag and Taylor shakes his head, taking it from me and smiling sleepily. We move into the hotel lobby where Bex has already checked us in and gathered up our keys. We follow her onto the elevator and I lean against the wall, my eyes closed. Maybe I can just stay right here until morning. I think I could sleep standing up at this point.

I feel an arm brush against mine and I turn my head to the side and open one eye. Zac is standing next to me, his head leaned back against the wall too, but it’s turned towards me. He’s got a sloppy grin on his face and his hair is all mussed up like he’d been rolling around on the floor of the bus before we parked.

“Is this where we’re sleeping?” His voice is gritty with sleep and I close my one eye again so I can stop looking at him. I don’t answer, but I don’t have to because the elevator dings and the doors open and we start moving into the hallway. 

Bex doles out the keys that have our room numbers written on them and we scatter. Taylor reaches his room and hands me my bag and I smile a thank you. Zac’s room is next and, once again, mine is the next door down.

“Night Quinn,” he says as I slide my key into the door and I look over at him. He’s pushing his door open and smiling over at me. “Sleep well.”

I nod and push my own door open. I can think about him tomorrow. Right now I need to sleep.

I open my eyes and my first thought is that I have no idea where I am. The second is mild panic when I hear an amused, “finally, I didn’t think you were ever going to wake up,” from next to me.

I spring into a sitting position and turn my head to the left to find Zac lounging next to me, his back resting against a pile of pillows, legs crossed at the ankles. 

“Is sneaking into my room going to be like…your hobby this tour?” I pull the blanket up around my chest self consciously and squint my eyes at him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I wanted to wake you up, but you looked so peaceful, so I figured I’d let you sleep a little longer.”

“How long have you been sitting there?”

“Not long,” he says and I lean back against the headboard. I’m still exhausted and I could do with a few more hours of sleep. Except I have no idea what time it even is. “Only like forty five minutes.”

“Forty five-” I gape at him. “You’ve been sitting there watching me sleep for forty five minutes?”

“No one said I was watching you sleep,” he grins at me. “Hearing you sleep is a whole different story, though.” He mock snores and I want to be annoyed but I can’t help it, I laugh.

“I do not snore.”

“Oh, you do,” he nods. “It’s cute, though.”

I ignore that and I throw the blankets off of me and on to him and get out of bed. “Anyway,” I say as I walk to the small coffee maker on the dresser. “Why are you in my room?”

“We’re going on an adventure.”

“An adventure?” I shove a coffee pod into the machine and hit the button. The smell of the coffee brewing fills up the room and I close my eyes and breathe it in. “What kind of adventure?”

“Have you ever been to New York at Christmas?”

“Never been to New York at all,” I dump some sugar packets into my coffee along with the disgusting powdered creamer hotels seem to think anyone at all actually likes and I stir it with the tiny plastic stirrer.

“What?” I wince because he practically shouted and the next thing I know, he’s standing next to me. I lift the too hot coffee to my mouth and take a slow sip. “You lived in Boston and you’ve never been to New York? How is that even possible?”

I take the cup away from my mouth for a second, “I dunno, Zac. Guess I just never had the urge.” And then I take another sip.

“I can’t believe this,” he mutters and then grabs my coffee from my hands. I gasp in shock and reach for it, but he bats my hand away. “Go get dressed right now. We’ll get more coffee on the way out. This is totally unacceptable.”

“Why are you so offended by this?” I reach for the coffee again and he bats me away again. He puts it down and walks around me and puts his hands on my shoulders. He walks me to the bathroom and lightly pushes me inside.

“Get ready. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

He’s back in nine, and I know this because I looked at the clock when I grabbed my coffee again once he’d left and I look at it now that he’s bursting back into my room. He’s got an iced coffee in one hand and a soda in the other and he’s holding a Starbucks bag underneath his chin.

“Got some pastries, I’m starving,” he drops the bag from his chin directly onto the dresser and holds the iced coffee out to me. “Hope I got this right. Taylor just said cream and sugar.”

“It’s coffee, it can’t really be wrong,” I accept it and take a sip. “Thank you.”

“Okay, no time, let’s go.”

He grabs the bag again in the same hand as the soda and grabs my closed fist with his other hand. I ignore the bolt of electricity that shoots from his fingers straight up my entire arm because I’m not going to be that ridiculous today. 

“You know, you shouldn’t sleep until two in the afternoon,” he says. He’s pulling me down the hallway towards the elevator and I don’t even know what’s going on. “Especially in a place you’ve never been before. If I had known this sooner I’d have had a better plan. I was just going to take you to eat street food and go ice skating, but now we have so much more to do!”

“I’m not going ice skating,” I say as the elevator doors open and he pulls me on. They shut just as he’s narrowing his eyes at me, but I speak again before he can. “Also, maybe if you didn’t watch me sleep for an hour like a total creep and just-”

“I wasn’t watching you sleep,” he says. “I already told you that.”

“This is the second time I’ve woken up with you in my bed,” I feel my face heat up the second the words leave my mouth and I shake my head. “It’s a little weird.”

He drops my fist and pulls a cheese danish out of the bag and holds it out to me. I look at it for a second before looking up at him and shaking my head. “I don’t want that.”

“Why not?”

“I-” I shake my head again. “I don’t know, I just don’t?”

“You’re complicated,” he shoves it in his mouth and rips a huge bite off with his teeth. I wince and turn away from him just as the elevator doors open. “Okay, let’s go!” 

He grabs my still closed hand again and pulls me through the lobby and out onto the sidewalk. It’s cold and I use my free hand to pull my jacket closed some more.

“I can’t believe you’ve never been here,” he repeats as he leads me down the street. 

“Not everyone has seen the entire world, Zac,” I’m struggling to keep up with him and when we finally reach the corner and it’s not clear for us to cross he drops my hand looks over at me.

“Fair. Are you cold?”

“A little,” I shrug.

“Here.”

He unwinds his scarf from around his neck and and leans over and winds it around mine. It smells like him and it’s warm and I pull the zipper of my jacket up over it as much as I can.

“We should get a cab,” he says. “It is really cold.”

“Where are we even going?” We start to cross the street once the signal tells us we can.

“I mean, we can go anywhere at this point, now that I know you’re a virgin,” I blink a couple of times to stop myself from making a comment at his words. “But, we don’t have all day. We should play tourists.”

“Tourists,” I repeat. It doesn’t sound half bad. If it weren’t so cold and he wasn’t making me walk so fast that I can’t even ingest any of my coffee.

“When you think New York, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?”

“Well,” I say, thinking about it for a second. “The Empire State Building, I guess.”

“Perfect,” he smiles over at me and then he steps to the curb and holds his arm out for a cab.

“My feet are killing me,” I’m whining a little bit. I know I am. 

We’re sitting in Serendipity 3 after waiting well over an hour and a half to get a table. Zac insisted that I just _had_ to try the frozen hot chocolate and then after me casually mentioning that I was a fan of the movie Serendipity, staring John Cusack, that just so happened to take place in New York City and featured the restaurant, he absolutely refused to allow us to get out of line until we finally got a seat.

So we froze to death outside in preparation to order frozen drinks, which still isn’t making too much sense to me, but here we are. All this after we spent the day traipsing around every tourist spot New York had to offer for us to squeeze into a small window of time. The Empire State Building made me feel a little bit sick and Times Square wasn’t nearly as impressive as I would have thought it’d be, but walking the Brooklyn Bridge took my breath away, even if I didn’t admit it out loud. I don’t even want to know how much Zac blew on Ubers. 

Our drinks come and Zac is staring at me gleefully. 

“What?” I laugh.

“Try it already!” He grins. He leans on the table and I make a big show of leaning in and taking a sip. It’s got to be one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. I take another sip and then lean back and smile at him.

“It’s delicious.”

“I know,” he smiles and leans in to drink some of his own. “Are you having fun?”

I nod and smile at him. Until right now I haven’t even had a single thought of how the air between us always feels so full of tension that you could cut it with a knife, or about how he’s married to another woman and how the sight of his face makes my heart beat erratically.

“I actually am, thank you.”

“You say that like you expected to have a miserable time.”

“No,” I laugh. “I didn’t…expect anything, really.”

“Well,” he leans in and takes another sip of his frozen hot chocolate and then leans back. “I’m glad. Now maybe you’ll trust me about the ice skating.”

“I’m not going ice skating,” I roll my eyes. “I’m really not.”

“Oh, but you are,” he nods his head and he’s so sure of himself. But I’m not going ice skating. I’m sure of it.

We took an Uber back to the hotel and Zac ran in to grab something and now we’re zooming back across Manhattan and I can’t help but watch the lights out the window and be amazed at how beautiful this place is. 

I’d seen it on television countless times. I’d seen photographs and posters and postcards, but nothing had ever prepared me for the way the view of the city rolling past the windows of the car your in can take your breath away. No one ever told me that the sights and sounds and smells of the city all rolling together was enough to make you feel like you wanted to get lost in its streets and avenues, maybe fall in love and disappear there forever. 

“You have secrets, don’t you?”

The question shakes me out of my thoughts and stops me in my tracks all at once and I slowly turn my head to look at Zac who is looking at me. He’s sitting almost sideways, his body resting half against the seat of the car and half against the door. His legs are stretched out in front of him as much as they can be in this small backseat.

“What?”

“You don’t talk about yourself a lot,” he shrugs a shoulder. “Kind of like there are things you don’t want to say.”

“I don’t…” I shake my head. He’s not wrong. There are plenty of things I don’t want to say. “You don’t talk about yourself a lot either,” I say instead of anything eloquent. 

“I’m an open book,” he shrugs again. “Just ask, I’ll tell.”

“Why are you so nice to me?” I don’t mean to say it and I feel my face heat up but he just smiles. It spreads slowly over his face until it’s practically taking up the whole thing. I could use some sunglasses.

“I like you, Quinn,” he shrugs again and I wonder if he’s just going to spend the whole night shrugging and also if the butterflies dancing around inside of my body all of a sudden are going to make a home there or go away.

We’re staring at each other and I have several questions flying through my mind, most of them wondering exactly how and which way he likes me and if it’s the way I like him, how does his wife feel about it, but luckily for the both of us I don’t get the chance because the Uber stops driving and Zac’s smile gets even wider, which I hadn’t thought possible only second ago and he leans forward and across me. “We’re here.”

“What?” I ask. It just looks like a normal city street to me and I’m confused. This was his big, day ending surprise? I push my door open and climb out and he climbs out after me, lugging his bag out of the backseat with him. He thanks the driver and shuts the door.

“You ready?” He smiles at me and I just look up at him. “Are you?”

“Where are we?” I laugh. 

“Come on,” he takes my hand and this time it’s not a closed fist and his fingers slide through mine. I look up at him and he smiles at me again and leads me onto the sidewalk. We walk for a few second and then we cross the street and round a corner and I’m just about to ask him again where we’re going when I see it.

It’s giant and covered in what must be millions of tiny, beautiful, twinkling lights, topped with a giant star. I stop walking and take it in for a second. I didn’t realize that I needed to see this Christmas tree until it was there in front of me, but it’s taking my breath away. He squeezes my hand and steps a little closer to me.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

I nod and I can’t stop looking at it. I want to get closer to it, appreciate it for what it is more up close. “It’s gorgeous.”

Between the thousands of lights, the giant tree, the newness of everything my eyes are taking in and the heat radiating between our pressed together palms, my head is swirling and my heart is thumping away in my chest and I can’t even deny it to myself anymore. I have the worlds biggest crush on him, and I’m pretty sure that Taylor was right and I’m not the only one.


	10. Chapter 10

“I can’t believe you’ve never seen this,” Zac is leading me through an asinine amount of bodies and we’re getting closer to the tree and I can’t stop staring at it as we move towards it.

“You keep saying that.”

“It’s true,” he says and squeezes my hand. I had almost forgotten that he was holding it. Almost.

“It’s incredible,” I smile. “Honestly.”

“I know,” he laughs softly. “Come on.” 

He changes our trajectory and now we’re moving down the stairs towards the ice skating rink and I’m shaking my head vehemently. 

“No,” I say. “Seriously, I’m not-”

“What are you so afraid of?” He stops walking and moves so he’s in front of me and looking down at me.

“Uh…dying?” 

He laughs and rolls his eyes and I almost want to punch him but that would require removing my hand from his and I _don’t_ want to do that.

“You’re not going to die. How would you even die ice skating?”

“I don’t know,” I shrug my shoulders. “You could fall and someone else could skate right over your throat and you could bleed out and-”

“What?” He laughs again. “That wouldn’t happen.”

“It could.”

“It wont.”

“You can’t promise me that, you shouldn’t make promises that you-”

“I’m here to protect you,” he grins. “Just trust me. Do you trust me?”

I want to say no and I almost do, but I can’t. Because for some reason, the truth is, I do. And the butterflies fluttering around inside of me are telling me that Zac protecting me doesn’t sound _so_ bad, so when he leads me to a bench and drops the bag I sit down and pull off my shoes and I strap his stupid death blade shoes onto my feet.

As soon as I’m done lacing them up my phone starts going off inside of my pocket so I fish it out and Grant’s name is flashing up at me. I feel Zac tense beside me and I close my eyes for a brief second before I shut the phones screen off and shove it back in my pocket.

“Things not going well there?”

I turn to look at Zac and there is something in his eyes I don’t recognize. His ever present smile is missing, but he doesn’t look angry, he just looks all together something else.

“We’re just friends.”

“Right,” he nods and he stares at me for a couple more seconds and then the smile creeps back on to his face and he pushes himself off of the bench and holds his hand out to me. “You ready for this?”

“No,” I laugh and shake my head and he laughs quietly, reaches down and slides his hand underneath mine, loops his fingers up through my own.

“Come on, Quinn,” he smiles and pulls me to my shaky feet. “You can do this.”

“I’m not so sure,” I mumble. He’s walking us, him backwards and me forwards closer and closer to the ice. My ankles feel like they could snap at any second and I’m not sure how I’m supposed to keep myself up once the world under me is made of slippery, frozen water. 

He moves us on to the ice and my legs stiffen underneath me. I’m shaking my head and I look up at him. I can feel that my eyes are wide and I must look like a total moron, but I don’t care. I can’t let this man lead me to my death.

“Zac, I-”

“Quinn,” he says softly and he’s smiling and shaking his head just a little bit. I swear his stupid eyes are _sparkling_ and _oh_ , I hate him. “You will be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you. I _promise_.”

I stare up at him for a few seconds and then, somehow, some way, I’m nodding and he’s smiling even bigger and he’s moving again, pulling me gently along with him.

“Come on, you have to actually move your feet,” he laughs. “Just…do it slowly, one in front of the other. There you go,” he says as I start to move. 

My ankles really don’t feel right and my feet are so heavy, I’m not sure how people do this for _fun_ , it doesn’t really make any sense to me. Not to mention the actual terror flowing through my body right now.

But suddenly the terror is lessening and my feet are moving on their own and I laugh and look up at him again, shaking my head. 

“See, it’s not that hard,” he laughs. “Can I let go? Do you want to try on your-”

“No!” I don’t mean to shout, but I do. He just laughs again and tightens his grip on my hands.

“Okay,” he nods. “Alright, how about we try like this,” he starts to move and he lets go of one of my hands. “This way I can actually see where I’m going.”

He moves to my side and now we’re both facing the same direction and it’s _okay_. We’re moving pretty seamlessly, rounding the corner and my legs don’t even fall out from underneath me. 

“You’re doing it. I told you.”

I look over at him quickly and then back out in front of me. I feel like I should see where I’m going, even if the urge to look at him again is strong.

“You don’t have to keep going with the told you so’s,” I say and then glance at him again. He chuckles and waits for me to look away.

“Well, I did tell you so.”

“You’re a jerk, you know that?”

“Maybe a little,” he laughs. “But you like me anyway.”

My heart skips a beat or two and those _goddamn_ butterflies are back, and I think I hate them more than I hate him, which is to say…not at all. I don’t hate them at all.

“No one ever said I liked you, Zac,” I try to keep my voice light and airy, joking, but it cracks on his name and he squeezes my hand just a little. Subtly. 

We skate quietly, and I’m gaining confidence. I can almost bare the thought of him letting go of my hand and trying it on my own. But only almost, I’m not insane. I know I’m not there yet.

“Are you too cold?” He asks after a few minutes and I shake my head.

“I’m okay.”

“Good, just tell me when you want to stop.”

I nod and we keep moving. I am cold, my nose is practically frozen, but I _don’t_ want to stop. This feels nice, good. Doing something I didn’t think I could do, in a city I never thought I’d see, with a guy who doesn’t make any sense at all holding my hand. Nothing makes sense. I shouldn’t be here, not with him, rounding this ice rink, his warm hand wrapped up with my cold one. I wonder if his wife knows, if they have some agreement. He can do whatever he wants with whoever he wants while he’s away from home and she’s okay with it. That makes less sense to me than anything else. If I had him I would never share him, how could she?

I’m trying to shake myself out of these thoughts as we round another corner, our feet moving even easier now. He starts talking, but I have no idea what he’s saying because just as his words start coming out of his mouth, I sneeze.

Sneezing was a mistake. A huge mistake. I don’t know if you know what happens to your body when you sneeze, but it jerks. It moves. It does whatever the hell it seemingly wants to, and none of this is good when you have skinny little blades strapped to your feet and maybe your ankles and your legs aren’t actually feeling as confident on them as you _thought_ they were. 

I know it’s coming before it happens. I can feel the dread sinking in, quicker than before, harsher. My whole body goes warm and then my legs are leaving from underneath me, I don’t know where they’re going, but it sure as shit isn’t where they’re supposed to be.

I fling my free hand out and grab for his jacket and I miss so I grab again and I get it this time and then I’m going down.

And he’s going with me.

I don’t know what happens between standing and laying flat on my back, but I know that Zac’s arm shot out to wrap around the back of my head, making sure I didn’t slam it on the ice, and then we landed in a heap of legs and arms and hair. I blow his hair out of my mouth and screw up my face and he lifts his head just enough so that I can see that he’s laughing.

Not laughing. He’s in hysterics. He’s laughing so hard that his eyes are closed and no sound is even coming out of him and my _God_ he is heavy.

I go to ask him just _what_ is so funny but he opens his eyes and he’s looking down at me and he’s so _close_ and this is so stupid, I feel the heat spread out throughout my entire body all at once and I want to push him off of me, but I can’t. I can’t because I don’t actually want that at all. And that? _That_ I hate.

“Are you okay?” He asks in almost a whisper, his breath fanning over my face. I nod and he nods. “Good,” he says just as low and then he moves and he’s closer and then he kisses me.

It’s soft and hesitant and I never, ever believed those things that people said about sparks flying and fireworks and heat and all of that _bullshit_ nonsense you would read about in romance novels, but I’ll be damned if I don’t feel every single one of them.

He pulls his arm out from under my head and now he’s holding it with his hand, his fingers digging into my hair. My hands have a mind of their own and they move up his back, one stalling in the middle, the other moving up to the back of his neck. Now I know what his hair feels like and it’s exactly what I thought. Soft. Nice.

We’re kissing and I’ve completely forgotten where we are and he obviously has too, because we hear a cough and we both jerk and he pulls his mouth from mine and I sigh out, closing my eyes for a second before opening them to see the ice rink worker standing over us.

“Sorry,” Zac speaks slowly. “We, uh, we fell and-”

“I see that,” the guy - more a teenager - says in a monotone voice as Zac rolls off of me and sits up. I push myself into a sitting position too. “If you don’t mind,” the kid continues. “There are kids here, I’m sure you and your wife-”

Everything else he says after that gets drowned out by the word. Wife. You and your wife. I am not his wife, but somebody else is. Kate, her name is Kate, which sounds nothing like Quinn, and here I am, in public, in New York Freaking City, making out with her husband for all to see. 

I somehow push myself into a standing position and I start to move across the ice to the exit. I can’t even believe my stupidity sometimes. Who is this guy turning me into? Who am _I_ turning into? 

I hear him calling to me but I’m stepping off of the ice and back onto more solid ground. I make my way over to the bench and I drop myself down onto it, practically ripping at the laces of the skates to get them off of me.


	11. Chapter 11

By the time Zac reaches me I have the skates off and I’m pulling on my shoes and standing up, grabbing for the ice skates but he shakes his head and takes them from me, sitting down.

“What just happened back there?” He asks and bends down to untie his laces. I’m watching his fingers undo them and I’m shaking my head but I don’t even know what to say. What _did_ happen back there? _Why_ did it happen? What the hell is going on? 

I don’t say anything and I want to walk away, but I don’t because I don’t even know where to go. I have no idea how to get back to the hotel and I have no money on me because I didn’t even bring my wallet. I had no idea what we were going to do all day and I didn’t even think about it before we left the room this afternoon.

“Quinn,” he shakes me out of my thoughts and now he’s standing in front of me, both pairs of skates in his hands. “What was that?”

“What was what?” I ask meekly and he snorts and shakes his head. 

“I don’t know, you running off the rink like you were on fire? What happened?”

“I didn’t run,” I protest weakly. “There is no way I could have-”

“Quinn,” he repeats my name and I sigh and I drop my head a little, brushing my hair behind my ear. “Talk to me, please. For once, just tell me what the hell is going on in that head of yours.”

“Your wife,” I repeat the teenagers words and I shake my head, still not looking at him. “I’m not your wife.”

“You’re upset because that nerd thought you were my wife?” He snorts again and I look up at him, my anger coming back. “Seriously?”

“No,” I spit. “I’m not mad about that, I don’t care about that, I-”

“Okay, then _what_?!” He asks dropping the skates to his sides and stepping towards me. “What is going _on_ here?” He motions between the two of us. “One minute I feel like you like me and the next I feel like you absolutely hate me for some reason and I can’t figure it out. I can’t get a read on you,” he shakes his head. “Taylor said-”

“Taylor needs to mind his business,” I say quietly and he laughs low.

“That’s…almost always true,” he agrees. “But it’s also beside the point. What is going on here, Quinn? Can you tell me so I know because I can’t figure it out and it’s driving me crazy.” He’s so close now, I could reach out and grab him and we could kiss again. It would be so easy and it would feel so good. But it’s the exact opposite of what I should do. Because I’m _not_ his wife.

“You’re married,” I say and it comes out harsher than I mean for it to. Louder, too. I don’t even realize I’m shouting, until it’s too late to stop, so I continue. “And you didn’t even tell me! You didn’t tell me that you have a _wife_ , Zac, you just started this really bizarre, really heavy flirtship with me and I let you and I flirted back and I _liked_ you and you didn’t even _tell me_ that you’re _married_! I found out on _Google_! Don’t you think I should get to decide if I want to be…to be…” I shake my head and wave my hand around in between us. “Some guys mistress?!”

He laughs and my eyes widen and I kind of want to slap him, but I wont. I’m a lady and we don’t slap men. Even if they’re married men who just kissed you on an ice skating rink in the middle of New York City surrounded by strangers. 

“That’s why you’re mad?” He asks calmly and now my eyes are narrowing.

“Yes,” I hiss. “That’s why I’m mad.”

He laughs again and I’m going to do it. I’m going to slap Zac Hanson at Rockefeller Center. And he’s going to _deserve it_.

“I’m not married, Quinn,” he says, brushing his hair out of his face. He’s grinning and I don’t understand how because I was just yelling at him and I _want_ to slap him and can’t he tell that I do? Why is he always grinning? “I didn’t tell you I was married because I’m _not_ married.”

“But…Google-”

“Fuck Google,” he laughs and a tiny laugh mixed with a heavy breath leaves my mouth. “Google doesn’t know everything, you know.”

“It does,” I say quietly. “It usually does.”

“Well, not this time,” he bends down and grabs the ice skates and his bag. He shoves them inside and motions with his head towards the exit. “Come on,” he slings his bag over his shoulder and reaches out for my hand. I let him take it. “Let’s go back to the hotel and talk about this. I’m starving, are you starving? We’ll order room service.”

I have a lot of things to say. So many things. I have questions that I need answers for and I kind of want them now, but food does sound good and talking about it in the warmth of the hotel sounds better than talking about it out here in the now frigid cold. So I nod and he smiles and we start walking.

“So,” I say, picking a French fry up from the plate that’s laid in between us on the bed. We’re in my room and Zac ordered what looks like the entire room service menu while I showered the cold off of me. We’re sitting facing each other, our legs tucked up underneath our bodies. “You guys just kind of…gave up?”

“No,” he laughs and shoves a fry in his own mouth. He chews for a few seconds and then looks at me. “We definitely didn’t just give up. We tried, for years. It just didn’t really _work_. She was never fully happy and either was I. We were too young to be making the kind of decisions we were making when we were making them. But, that’s my family. We all do it, settle down young, put down roots. I guess it doesn’t work for all of us.”

“That’s…” I look at him and tilt my head to the side. “Kind of really sad.”

“I mean, it’s not. We’re doing what’s right now, you know? Not wasting any more time trying to force something that just isn’t meant to be.”

“I guess, yeah. How are your kids taking it?”

“Well,” he smiles. “They live practically down the road. They - we all - have a great support system. They have one million cousins and a bunch of crazy aunts and uncles who adore them. They have everything, the last thing they need is two parents who stay together for the wrong reasons and eventually make each other miserable. They get it. The older ones, at least.”

“That’s good,” I nod and push a fry into my mouth. I feel slightly better about my sudden and overwhelming crush on this guy. I even feel better about Taylor acting like it was nothing to be alarmed by, because apparently it wasn’t. What I don’t feel better about is the fact that he is still my boss. That he is still the brother of the only person in Oklahoma that I’ve been able to strike up a genuine friendship with. That if I allow myself to get into…whatever this thing with him is, and it goes south, I’ll be back where I started in Tulsa: jobless, friendless and alone. The thought terrifies me. This job that I still don’t even know what it really is and my friendship with Taylor might not amount to a lot, but it’s all I really have anymore. 

“What’s going on in there?” Zac’s voice breaks me from my depressing train of thought and I look up at him. “I feel like there is always something going on in there.” He’s smiling and staring at me and I’m _this_ close to just giving in, just letting it happen. I could brush all of these plates off of this bed and onto the floor and crawl over to him and just…allow us to…become an us. There is no wife in the way, so why am I so afraid?

“I like you,” I say, surprising even myself. A corner of his mouth rises even further and he drops the fry he was about to eat back on to the plate. I wonder if he’s considering throwing all of the dishes on the floor too. “You were right about that,” I shrug a shoulder. “And that terrifies me.”

“Why?” He grins. “I’m not scary.”

“Maybe not,” I shrug again. “But, and this is going to sound stupid, your brother…Taylor…he’s all I’ve got in the one pony town we live in and-”

“Taylor would be beside himself to hear you call his precious Tulsa a one pony town, Quinn, we’ve been over this.”

“Shut _up_ ,” I can’t help but smile. “He’s all I’ve got, my only friend. If I give in…to whatever is happening here,” I wave between us, not for the first time today. “And it doesn’t work? And it goes ugly? I’ll lose him.”

“You wont,” Zac shakes his head. “Taylor isn’t like that, and besides, why would it go ugly?”

“For any number of reasons?” I have to get up. I’m uncomfortable now. I don’t like opening up, in fact it’s my least favorite thing to do right before getting a root canal. I stand and start gathering the plates in my arms. “I mean, we don’t even really know each other. Who is to say we would even like each other once we do?” I start piling the plates on the rolling tray the bell hop had brought it in on. “You might decide you hate me. Or you don’t like my coffee addiction, or-” he grabs my wrist lightly when I reach for another plate and pulls me to the side of the bed so that my thighs are resting against it and I’m looking down at him.

“Isn’t it better to give me the chance to find that out for myself?”

“No,” I say quietly. “It’s terrifying and horrible and I don’t want you to find that out for your-”

He pulls my arm lightly and leans up at the same time so that his lips press against mine. It’s chaste and soft and he pulls away just far enough to look at me.

“I hate to tell you this, Quinn VanCamp,” he grins and slides his hand from my wrist, wrapping his fingers through mine. “But I’ve already got it pretty bad for you and I’m not really the kind of guy who gives up when he wants something. Hell, I crashed my motorcycle into a brick wall and got back on-”

“You did what?” I draw in a breath, the vision of him in a fiery wreck passing through my mind.

“It was no big deal,” he laughs, waving his free hand in the air. “Few broken bones, I was totally okay.”

“Jesus,” I breathe. “There’s so much about you that I don’t know.”

He leans up and kisses me quickly again and then stands up with me. He lets go of my wrist and looks down at me and smiles.

“So much that you can learn,” he licks his lips and tilts his head. “If you give us a chance to get to know each other, maybe it’ll go the other way,” he shrugs a shoulder. “Not ugly, not bad, but good.”

I let his words sink in and then I nod slowly, surprising even myself. “Yeah,” I say, nodding again. “Okay, yeah.”

“Okay, yeah?” He repeats, laughing a little. 

“Yeah,” I laugh with him, dropping my head and shaking it a little. “Let’s get to know each other.”

“We have to get up early to get ready for the show tomorrow,” he says. “And it’s already pretty late. But how do you feel about a movie? We could rent one of the astronomically priced ones they offer.”

“Alright,” I smile, shrugging. “Why not?”

“Just a movie,” he grins, settling back into my bed, his upper body resting against the headboard, his legs crossed at the ankles. “Don’t try any funny business. I’m a lady.”

I roll my eyes and laugh, walking around the bed and settling down. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.


End file.
